Rafael:  Kevin, can you explain in detail all of the program and services offered by the Global Training & Certification Institute?

Kevin: Sure. First off though, our programs were created because of the lack of niche knowledge and practical training provided at community colleges, universities and college in Europe and the United States.  We do not aim to be the largest, cheapest, or most popular within any single country, all of our programs all aim to be the most practical, challenging, and globally accepted programs within their respective industries. Over 1,000 professionals have completed our various online training and certification programs from around the world.  With that said here are the programs we currently offer:

Hedge Fund Certification Program: Our business actually started within the training and certification niche by launching the Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Designation Program. This program is the #1 most credible, well recognized, and trusted hedge fund training and certification program. In fact it is the only hedge fund certification program which is international, 100% online, and built exclusively by and for hedge fund professionals.

Online Business Training Programs:  We offer over 20 online business training programs at BusinessTraining.com. These programs may all be completed in 5 months or less and are very practical and challenging.  Currently the program we are offer include a Business Analyst Certification, Business Development Certification, Business Broker Certification, Business Coaching Certification, Business Fundamentals Certification, Business Management Certification, Business Consultant Certification, Copywriting Certification, Customer Service Manager Certification, Facilitator Certification, Financial Analyst Certification, International Business Certification, Internet Marketing Certification, Project Management Certification, Public Relations Certification,  Purchase Management Certification, Recruiting Certification, and Supply Chain Management Certification.

Private Equity Certification Program:  The private equity industry is unique in its size, investment horizon, and the training needs of its employees and managers.  The Certified Private Equity Professional (CPEP) program was started by our team to help private equity executives, professionals, fund managers, and students learn about private equity industry fundamentals, challenges, trends, and terms.

Translator Certification Program:  The Certified Translation Professional (CTP) program is a 100% online translator training and certification program. This program helps those which speak multiple languages or already work as professional translators earn a designation which shows that their ability to translate has been tested and they hold knowledge on translation industry best practices and ethics.

Customer Service Certification: Our Customer Loyalty Specialist (CLS) program was built for heads of customer service and those who want to quickly move up to customer service management roles within their organization. We speak with many teams of customer service professionals each quarter who are completing this program.

That summarizes most of what we are doing at the GTC Institute. Our mission is to provide practical, challenging, global training and certification opportunities for hard working professionals who want to get ahead. We are constantly improving all of our educational programs and we have one team member who does nothing but research best practices being put in place by our competitors and then adapting those to our programs, some of his research can be seen at CertificationIQ.com.

Rafael:  Sounds like your team is keeping very busy.  I know from reviewing these programs and working with your team that a lot of time goes into the video resources and study guides behind each of these programs listed above.  Thank you for sharing all of that with us and clearing that up.

Rafael: Is your team launching any new websites in the next year?

Kevin:  Richard will be launching a website on CEO Training to share what he has been learning while growing his company, but other than that we are sticking to the line of websites we already are managing – that is keeping us very busy.

Rafael: I have read one of your books, can you list out some of the books and smaller websites that your team also runs?

Kevin:  Sure. Our books can be found through these links: Family Office Book, Hedge Fund Book, Hedge Fund Training, Prime Brokerage Book, Start A Hedge Fund, and Public Relations Book.

Rafael:  I know that most of your training programs grew out of industry leading blogs which lead to 1,000′s of professionals emailing you about their desire to complete such programs.

Kevin: Yes. Our company was actually started by Richard Wilson who started a single blog which grew to 10,000 pageviews a day and then led to the launching of our first online training and certification programs. Right now our team runs the following network of blogs:

• Business Training Resources
• Hedge Fund Blogger
• Marketing & Sales Guru
• Prime Brokerage Guide
• Fund Administration
• Hedge Fund Startup Guru
• Customer Service Reference
• Commodities and Futures Guide
• Third Party Marketing
• Become A Translator
• Public Relations Blogger
• Family Offices Group
• Business Vocab
• International Business Training
• Investment Banking Training
• Translation Training
• Private Equity Blogger

We also have a few independent websites which just help web visitors navigate what we offer:

• Business Certifications
• Investment Training
• Business Association
• Business Designation

Rafael: That is great. Our team runs several blogs and connected websites as well.  Some of our most popular websites include:

• Angel Investor Guru
• Venture Capital Blogger

Kevin: What about your websites where individuals can gain access to your firm resources, can you list those out for us below?

Rafael:  Sure, our sites have taken us three years to launch and develop and they now include sites that provide a Family Office Database, Hedge Fund Directory, Private Equity Directory, Angel Investor Directory, Venture Capital Database, Family Office Directory, Endowment Directory, Pension Directory, Film Funding Sources, Bank Database, Investment Banking Directory,  Family Office List, and various other Investor Databases.  Each of these directories and databases provides the full contact details for investors or investment companies in Excel format delivered within one business day.

Kevin: Why do individuals acquire these investor databases? What is their motivation?

Rafael: The #1 reason is that it takes 20-25 minutes to find the complete phone number, email address, and physical address for the average investor, so if the potential client looking at our database makes more than $4 hour they are going to benefit from purchasing our database of investor contact details and saving all of that time of finding these same contact details.

Kevin:  How much work does it take to keep these databases updated? Does your team provide free updates to clients on their databases that they purchase?

Rafael:  We have two full time employees who do nothing but help keep these databases current, updated and very high quality. We are constantly expanding the coverage within our databases and we now offer the best refund policies and quality guarantees of the data because we have put in this hard work in building the product.

Kevin:  I understand, thank you for sharing all of this and thank you for your time today.

Disclosure:  Kevin & Rafael both work for the Investor Databases, LLC and Global Training & Certification (GTC) Institute, LLC and this interview was conducted between these sister companies to provide more transparency and clarity on their services offered.

Tags: Investor Databases, Investor Directories, Investor Database, Training, Training and certifications, certification programs, training programs online, certificate programs, certificates, online certificate programs, 2QUTGCSCCHQM

Hedge Fund of Funds List in Excel

Part of our team runs the largest hedge fund networking association in the industry and they have just finished updating a new version of our Fund of Funds Directory.  This resource was created after our team received dozens of emails from industry professionals looking for lists of fund of funds, digital fund of fund databases, and excel-based hedge fund of fund directories.

This Fund of Funds Directory is Excel-based and provides full contact details of private equity firms including the following information:

• Contact names
• Job titles
• Phone numbers
• Email addresses
• Physical addresses
• Website URLs. 

If you are interested in learning more about this resource, getting a sample of our fund of funds list or contacting the creators please see Fund of Funds Directory.com. You may also navigate this same site by following one of the links below:

• Buy Fund of Funds Directory
• Benefits of Owning the Fund of Funds Directory
• Fund of Funds Directory FAQ

This list of fund of funds contact details is updated twice a year and when you purchase a copy of it you will get free updates to it for a period of 12 months after your purchase.

Related to this blog post: Hedge Fund of Funds List

• Fund of Funds Directory
• Private Equity Directory
• Family Offices
• Angel Investor Directory
• Hedge Fund Directory
• Family Office Directory

Tags: Hedge Fund of Funds List, Fund of Funds List, List of Fund of Funds, Top Fund of Funds, Directory list of fund of funds, fund of fund directory, fund of fund list, hedge fund of fund list

Directory List of Private Equity Firms

Part of our team runs the largest private equity networking association in the industry and they just finished updating Version 2.1 of our Private Equity Directory.  This resource was created after our team received dozens of emails from industry professionals looking for lists of private equity firms, digital family office databases, and excel-based family office directories.

This Private Equity Directory is Excel-based and provides full contact details of private equity firms including the following information:

• Contact names
• Job titles
• Phone numbers
• Email addresses
• Physical addresses
• Website URLs.

If you are interested in learning more about this resource, getting a sample of our private equity directory or contacting the creators please see Private Equity Directory.com. You may also navigate this same site by following one of the links below:

• Buy Private Equity Directory
• Benefits of Owning the Private Equity Directory
• Private Equity Directory FAQ

This directory is updated twice a year and when you purchase a copy of it you will get free updates to it for a period of 12 months after your purchase.

Related to this blog post: Private Equity Directory

• Private Equity Directory
• Family Offices
• Angel Investor Directory
• Hedge Fund Directory
• Fund of Funds Directory
• Family Office Directory

Tags: Private Equity Directory, Private Equity Firms List, Private Equity List, Directory of Private Equity Firms, Private Equity Database, Database of Private Equity Firms, Private Equity Funds List, List of Private Equity Firms, Private Equity Companies List

• General questions
• Aliens
• Business insurance
• Business licenses and permits
• Disability insurance
• Dissolving a business

There are many more topics with readymade answers for those needing quick legal advice. In addition, the site offers a community of lawyers who make themselves available to answer questions. In order to ask a question, you can choose from among many forums that include such topics as:

• Accident and injury law
• Bankruptcy and consumer credit
• Business and financial law

When you ask a question, it will be forwarded, through the site, to a lawyer who specializes in that topic. Your question and its answer will then be posted on the site along with all of the others who have asked questions. This is a wonderful way to get legal information and for those with legal problems to help one another benefit from the advice distributed through freeadvice.com.

When you engage customers and potential customers by blogging, it serves two purposes. It demonstrates your vast knowledge of the industry you are a part of. It also helps to brand your business. Your business is no longer one of many businesses competing for the same market, but rather it is the one “with the guy who gives advice.” Every industry has some sector where readers want some do-it-yourself advice. Everything from gardening to investing has some element of do-it-yourself, and that is where your blog will appeal to readers and draw them to you and your business.

After all, restaurants showcase their positive review by framing them and displaying them, don’t they? Think of any press coverage your company receives as the same type of thing. Your website is nothing less than an online storefront, and any press coverage you receive should be proudly displayed. Studies have shown that web sites with numerous links to published articles about the business receive more hits and within one year, business is seen to improve in businesses that post new articles on a regular basis. Don’t let your business fall behind—be sure to showcase all of your good press on your web site.

Even if your business is mostly a physical storefront and its web presence is minimal, it still helps to consider adopting a name that is highly searched online. You can research keywords online to find a company name that many will search for when they are in need of your product or service. Be sure it is easy to remember and to spell as well as relevant to your business.

By and large, investors are seeking high-growth opportunities. They want to see your project or business in terms of a large, scalable opportunity. Double-digit growth will attract them, and revenues at twenty million or more within five years, if they can be proven, will definitely attract investor interest.

Before detailing what you will need in terms of funding, first quantify what you have got already. Even if you haven’t got money, you have your own sweat equity. When seeking investors it is crucial to include a current estimate of value in the business plan. That way they know what the starting point is and can consider funding from there.

A column, once you get some loyal readers, makes you “slightly famous” in your field. Numerous individuals will know who you are and respect your knowledge. This will draw more customers to your business and also attract them to any book you write or other product you may put out in the field of business advice. There are a lot of different directions to go once your business is successful—you could expand the business itself, or branch off into giving advice about business. Writing a column can help in any case.